13.06.2007 - Poland, Chorzow

[SergSlim]

After reading some of the reviews here, I decided to write my own.

So it was my first and only LP show to the date.

 

FOREWORD

 

When the show in Poland was announced I thought that it would be cool to go there. 2 shows were also announced in Russia, so it was also an option for me, but I decided to go to Poland, cause it's closer to me, and a country that I've never been to. My girlfriend has relatives there, not far from the city where the show was held, so she went with me to visit them.

We had to obtain a visa to go to Poland first. There was a line for a month ahead if I remember correctly, but we had plenty of time. At that time visa to Poland was free.

 

I applied for a Meet & Greet and was astonished when I got an email saying that I got it.

We went by bus. The bad thing was the Ukraine-Poland border. We spent 6 hours there... Crazy.

I found out that in the same bus there was a guy who also went to that show, but you can't imagine what was my amazement, when he told that he's going to see Pearl Jam and not Linkin Park. I didn't know that band at all at that time.

 

Poland

 

Anyway we came to Katowice, and my girlfriend's first cousin met us. We went to the stadium right away, but he thought that the show will be held in Katowice itself, so he took us to the wrong place. Then I showed him the ticket and address, and he said that it's in another city. We went back to the bus station and asked how to get there, and they told us to go by tramway. LOL, in Ukraine we don't have tramways between cities, only within the city boundaries, so it was very strange that we needed to go by tramway.

So we got on that tramway and were near the stadium shortly.

I met with 2 girls from Kiev (Ukrainian capital) there. and their friend from Poland.

One of them (April) also got a M&G pass.

 

There was still plenty of time before the show, so we went for a walk around the stadium. It's very beautiful there, like in a park. Later we went to one of the ticket offices to get our M&G passes. We were told where to meet.

I asked at the other ticket office if I need to exchange my printed e-ticked, or it can be used to get to the show, and I was told that I don't need to exchange it.

 

We sat on the grass when we waited for the beginning of the show.

I even got interviewed by some girl from radiostation...

 

Waiting in line

 

Then we stood up in line to the entrance. we were supposed to be let in at 16 but they started letting ppl in only an hour later... which sucked, because the line was getting crazy near the entrance during this hour. Polish people started ranting something and laughing, too bad I didn't understand a word....

Well, after a while they started letting people in. They had 2 boundaries, with securities checking all bags twice. When they saw my printed ticked - they told me that I need to exchange it to normal one, but they let me throught the first border, and told me to go out throught the exit and go to the ticket office where I asked if I needed to exchange the tickets earlier that day. But I went to the second border, where I was told the same thing... I was pissed, because that ticket office was far away, and they didn't tell me anything about it when I asked them earlier.

Well, I had to go there anyway. And when I came there, I was third in line I suppose... They didn't even know what to do with those tickets, so I waited at least 10 minutes.. and I was very nervous, because I was supposed to get the M&G place soon, and I still didn't get my ticket.. well, after a while they gave normal tickets to everyone.

I went back to that entrance place, and there was huge line already... I came up to the guardian near the exit, and asked if he can let me in, I told him that I already went through the first boundary, but had to exchange the ticket. He told me that he need to ask someone else about it. He did ask, and that dude told him not to let me in, so I went to the end of the line... Luckily it took less time to get through than I thought it will take.

 

M&G Part 1

 

I met with the girl (April), who also had to go to M&G... We waited in the place that we've been told to. To our surprise we found only 1 more girl who was supposed to go to M&G there... She was very nervous, because like we, haven't found anyone else, who was supposed to go to M&G. Out of 80 ppl who were in the list we were only 3 there.... We told her to go and ask a guy with backstage pass what should we do, and he told us, that he came for us, and took us to another meeting place.

There were rest of the people who were supposed to go to M&G.

At first we waited there for some time, then we were taken backstage and waited there for much longer. I don't even know how long we waited, but afterwards we were told that there won't be a M&G now, and told us to get back here after the show.

 

When we came in front of the stage we found out that we missed all the supporting acts.

We tried to get as close to the stage as possible, but it was very hard... camera man on stage was filming crowd and showing it on big screens. i got lucky and I was shown on big screen with Ukrainian flag

 

THE SHOW

 

After some time LP came on stage.... I thought I will record the show on my Digicam, but after they started playing and everyone started jumping, camera slowly went down, and I decided against recording...

They started with OSC, during that song we moved closer to the stage...

We found ourselves to be in the mosh pit.... It was kind of crazy experience... We barely stood on our feet... After a while April went a little bit closer to the stage and I was unable to keep up with her, so I decided to get out of this to some calmer place...

I remember Mike saying that there was a crazy movement going on there...

 

At that time I liked NMS a lot, and I was very glad that they played it

I recorded slow songs from new album - LOATR and TLTGYA.

Chester danced so funny on TLTGYA, and I liked it a lot...

Too bad, they didn't play Don't Stay and Given Up on that show...

But overall the show was great, I liked it a lot.

Faint with the new ending was just awesome!!!!

 

M&G Part 2

 

After the show I went to the M&G meeting place. Met April again... My t-shirt was totally wet.

Once again we waited some time... but then we were taken into the building. went through some corridors and came into the room where LP were sitting

Me and April decided to go at the end of the line, so that we might get more time with them. But there were some other people behind us anyway.

Rob was first, and he was the only one who reached out his hand and shook my hand. It was very nice of him to do it...

Well, I won't tell the whole M&G story, cause you can see it all on the video.

When I was coming up to Brad, who was last in line, staff started bringing in GOLD discs. I asked if I could make a photo of them, but I was not allowed to do so.

After we went out of the building, where the M&G was held, staff brought us posters of the show, but gave it just to one person, and said us to share among others, but outside of the backstage area, which was not a good idea, cause there were lots of other fans, who rushed at the guy who had all these posters, and started grabing them... I hardly took few of them safe and sound, cause I heard many of them being torn.

 

I was not able to stay for Pearl Jam, cause I had to take a bus to another city, and if I stayed I would've missed the last one.

 

It was an unforgettable experience in my life!!! I wish I could come back to Poland for a show again!!!

 

When I got Wojciech's DVDs of that show, I was gladly surprised when I saw myself on the bigscreen between songs. Nice evidence of me being on that show

 

Holy sh**, this story turned out to be very long....

[sckofelng]

very nice review, that M&G situation seemed to be really messy

[Alexonlyalex]

Yeah dude, fuckin awesome. I hope that my first time will be less problematical.

Edited March 15, 2009 by Yugialex